Saltwater

What’s worse than gay stereotypes? It would have to be perpetually presenting them by gay filmmakers. Setting gay cinema back by at least twenty years, the tepid potboiler "Saltwater" attempts to assimilate gay relationships. Two former military men are set up for a blind date by "Rich" [Bruce L. Hart] a close friend to both men. After going through a political and personal disagreement on their initial blind date, Will [Ronnie Kerr] and Josh [Ian Roberts] spend the majority of the proceedings knowing they are attracted to each other yet can’t seem to communicate their feelings over time. It’s almost unbearable how many hackneyed scenarios are put into play before the two men come to the realization that they should be together.

Unfortunately, their friend Rich, as written in the almost unbearably dreadful script, is one annoying queen and utterly one-dimensional from the get-go. Other than popping in and out of a badly done collage of party scenes, "Rich" is not developed as a character one would relate to or care about. Yet, it is his untimely death in "Saltwater" that is supposed to ultimately bring the characters of "Will" and "Josh" together. If writer and star Ronnie Kerr would have dug deeper into the character of "Rich," his role and relationships to the other people in the film, it’s quite possible that this missing piece could have delivered truer meaning to the film as it unfolds.

One bright spot in the otherwise mundane scenario is the portrayal of "Will" by Ian Roberts. Roberts, a former Australian Rugby player who came out as a gay man in 1995, adds a much needed spark from the very beginning. He comes off as a roguish, sexy and an ultimately sensitive type who adds realism and a heat of sexual tension as he develops a friendship and romance with Ronnie Kerr as "Will." As stated in the film, "saltwater is found in tears, sweat and the sea." Unfortunately and not for lack of trying, "Saltwater" is ultimately a forgettable film experience better off left buried in the sea of "stereotypes" from whence it came.